The 43rd annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, commonly known as JPM, will feature presentations from more than 500 private and public companies, focusing on hospital mergers and acquisitions, insurers’ financial performance and other topics. Attendees will hear healthcare companies' investment strategies. Security has been increased following the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson last month at the insurer's investor day in New York and other recent attacks.
Follow here for live updates throughout the day or check out coverage from the other days.
- Day 2
- Day 3
9:45 p.m. - Tempus AI CEO stays positive amid stock stumble
Tempus AI had a tough debut at its first-ever JPM conference as a public company.
On Monday, the precision medicine and diagnostics company posted preliminary financial results ahead of the conference, including year-end revenue of $693 million. The results were short of analysts’ expectations and caused the company’s stock to tumble nearly 14% from $37.37 per share to $32.34 per share at close of day.
Eric Lefkofsky, CEO and co-founder of Tempus AI, attributed the revenue shortfall to challenges in its genomics business. He was still optimistic about Tempus’ long-term prospects, particularly because of the company's data AI products that it sells to hospitals. He said Tempus has developed artificial intelligence applications for multiple medical specialties that operate in scale but don’t generate a lot of revenue.
“We haven't yet really figured out how to pay for AI in healthcare,” Lefkofsky said. “We believe at some point we will figure that out, and these things will generate meaningful revenue. We are seeing some early signs of that, which are exciting.”
Tempus has built up a huge database, including connections to the electronic health record systems of half the country's hospitals, Lefkofsky said. This large data set and the company's portfolio of AI applications will set it up for success, he said.
Tempus, which went public in June, also expects to close its $600 million acquisition of Ambry Genetics in the second quarter of 2025. Lefkofsky said this will provide another boost to Tempus’ prospects this year.
— Gabriel Perna
9:30 p.m. - Teladoc Health CEO aims for a better 2025
Teladoc Health CEO, Chuck Divita looked to convince investors the virtual care business was on the right track.
Divita, who took the helm in June, acknowledged there was pressure to deliver consistent financial performance after a turbulent 2024.
“Clearly, we are a 'show me' story at this point, and I think it’s going to come down to execution — our ability to articulate what we’re doing in terms of our priorities and then showing success against that,” Divita said.
He highlighted the company’s large user base and its ability to connect patients it served to different types of care. Teladoc is in the process of implementing technology that allows it to more efficiently interact with brick-and-mortar, as well as other third-party, care providers, Divita said.
The company reiterated it was pursuing benefit coverage for BetterHelp from both employers and health plans in response to rising customer acquisition costs. Teladoc aims to grow the segment’s user base, add new features focused on increased user activation, and broaden its international reach with a focus on some non-English speaking markets, Divita said.
Teladoc also announced it would join Amazon’s Health Benefits Connector, which was previously known as Amazon’s Health Condition Programs. The arrangement allows Amazon customers who are eligible for Teladoc Health’s diabetes, hypertension, pre-diabetes and weight management programs to enroll through Amazon. The technology and e-commerce giant first announced the offering at JPM last year.
— Brock E.W. Turner
8:10 p.m. - OhioHealth divests home health, laboratory businesses
OhioHealth is increasingly turning to partners in home health, laboratory and other ancillary services as it hones in on its core business.
The Columbus, Ohio-based system is divesting certain ancillary businesses as its 19 hospitals are operating at capacity, executives said. OhioHealth will add inpatient capacity at its existing hospitals and acquire acute-care facilities, where appropriate.
“Another way in which we try to make sure we are a high-performing organization is to admit when other people can do things better,” John McWhorter, chief operating officer of OhioHealth, said at a Monday afternoon presentation.
For instance, home care provider Compassus in September acquired a 51% stake in four OhioHealth home health and three hospice locations.
In October, diagnostic company Quest Diagnostics acquired 62 non-hospital-based labs operated by OhioHealth.
“OhioHealth historically had a must-build-it-yourself mindset,” CEO Dr. Stephen Markovich said at the presentation. “We need to grow in everything we do with our partners, that will fuel our success.”
— Alex Kacik
7:40 p.m. - Advocate Health pushes for more post-merger savings
Advocate Health achieved $755 million in annual recurring cost savings post-merger and is on track to reach its $1 billion savings goal by the end of the year, Chief Financial Officer Brad Clark said.
Advocate Aurora Health in Illinois and Wisconsin merged with North Carolina-based Atrium Health in late 2022 to form Advocate Health.
A large portion of the $755 million comes from contractual savings, in addition to workforce efficiency and the divestiture of non-core assets, Clark said. He said the Advocate team still holds a monthly check-in to discuss the integration of the two systems and ways to make operations more efficient.
“We're still celebrating successes. We're still rewarding behavior on a regular basis,” Clark said.
Advocate’s strategy is called Rewire 2030, which focuses on priorities such as achieving scale and creating a new portfolio of virtual care capabilities.
“Literally, how do we rewire our organization? We make sure we're preparing for what arguably is going to be the most dynamic time in any of our careers,” CEO Gene Woods said.
Woods said he thinks achieving scale and properly integrating within that scale is the best move for the communities Advocate serves.
— Caroline Hudson
6:30 p.m. - Philips CEO warns tariffs could lead to price hikes
Philips CEO Roy Jakobs warned President-elect Donald Trump’s proposed 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico and higher tariffs on goods from China could be disruptive, drive up prices and hurt supply chain stability.
“I think it's obvious that tariffs do not help the world, and potentially can be price enhancing,” he said.
Although the company is working to stabilize its supply chain, Jakobs said Monday the company won’t be able to change its factory operations and supply chain networks overnight if the tariffs end up being very disruptive.
“This is such a complex puzzle, [so] it's better not to speculate on it, but on the other hand, we continue to work very strongly on our productivity expansion, so that when it happens, we address it,” he said.
—Lauren Dubinsky
6 p.m. - Intermountain Health launches Mindshare collaboration
Intermountain Health formally launched the Mindshare Institute to bring together healthcare players and launch new initiatives to solve issues across the industry, including lowering the cost of healthcare.
Intermountain CEO Rob Allen said he is looking for other systems, academic organizations and philanthropists to join the collaboration.
“We want to have space to [gather] with others and figure out how we start to solve the problems, and that’s not going to happen in normal operations,” Allen said in an interview on Monday afternoon.
Ultimately, Intermountain doesn't need to be the system that comes up with the solutions, Allen said. Once others join, "The idea is it will then take on its own life,” he said.
Salt Lake City-based Intermountain has also been making big investments in its growth, Chief Financial Officer Clay Ashdown noted in a Monday presentation. Last year, Intermountain opened a children’s hospital campus in Utah in February, and in August, it opened the new Lutheran Medical Center in Wheat Ridge, Colorado.
In October, the health system announced it would open the first standalone children’s hospital in Nevada, a project that is in the design phase. The hospital is slated to open in the next few years.
— Caroline Hudson
4:10 p.m. - Baxter to restart all production lines in North Carolina plant
Baxter plans to restart all production lines at its North Carolina IV solutions manufacturing site early this quarter after it was flooded by Hurricane Helene last fall, executives said Monday.
The company expected a $200 million hit in fourth-quarter sales as a result of the damage, according to its 2024 third quarter earnings report.
In October, Baxter started temporarily importing products from its other manufacturing facilities, including those in Canada, China, Ireland and the U.K., to supply the U.S. market. Later that month, the company resumed some production of its IV solutions at the plant.
Joe Almeida, chairman, president and CEO of Baxter, told the conference the updated plant is fully automated and described it as “superior” to its pre-hurricane state.
“Our employers have worked diligently,” he said “We had more than a couple million working hours dedicated to the plant, and [now] we are able to get product back on the market.”
— Lauren Dubinsky
3:30 p.m. - Baylor Scott & White dials in on Longitude Health venture
Baylor Scott & White CEO Pete McCanna wants more health systems to participate in Longitude Health.
Longitude is a for-profit entity focused on developing operational solutions for specialty pharmacy services, population health management and other issues. Baylor launched Longitude last year in collaboration with Providence, Memorial Hermann Health System and Novant Health.
McCanna said he hopes the collaboration will grow to a dozen or so health systems and have more national coverage. Longitude is a long-term capital play, and it will allow developers to test solutions within health systems and potentially scale them, he said.
Dallas-based Baylor is also eyeing more system growth.
Chief Financial Officer Jennifer Mitzner said the system has about $3 billion in capital being deployed and roughly half is dedicated to growth.
McCanna said he is open to both mergers and partnerships, but he is more interested in finding a like-minded partner than cutting costs with a combination.
— Caroline Hudson
3 p.m. - Sutter Health looks to grow outpatient network
Sutter Health sees opportunity to grow in each of its geographic markets, President and CEO Warner Thomas said in a Monday morning presentation.
The Sacramento, California-based health system aims to expand both through mergers and acquisitions and joint ventures. While the 27-hospital organization has several inpatient additions in the works, growth plans center on outpatient care around Sacramento and the Bay Area.
“Our viewpoint of the future is we have to have a very distributed, ambulatory-based healthcare delivery system,” Thomas said. “We’ll always have hospitals, but we want to continue to double down on our ambulatory investment.”
Sutter plans to open roughly two dozen outpatient sites from 2025 through 2028. Part of that expansion includes an $800 million outpatient hub in Santa Clara, California, which will feature primary and specialty care services.
Ambulatory visit year-over-year growth of 9.2% is outpacing emergency department and inpatient utilization growth of around 6% to 7%, said Mark Sevco, chief operating officer at Sutter.
The health system also plans to hire more clinicians, improve its patient-facing digital tools and work more closely with Medicare Advantage insurers, Thomas said.
— Alex Kacik
2:10 p.m. - Johnson & Johnson bets on medtech growth in cardiology, vision and robotics
Johnson & Johnson plans to grow its medtech business by focusing on cardiology and vision products, as well as robotics, said Joaquin Duato, chairman and CEO.
The company is building its portfolio through a combination of acquisitions and research and development, having invested over $30 billion in internal R&D over the past two years.
Duato estimates the company’s medtech business will grow between 5% and 7% from 2025 to 2030. By 2027, he anticipates that a third of the its sales will come from new cardiology, vision and robotics products.
Johnson & Johnson has strengthened its position in the interventional cardiology space through acquisitions of Abiomed in December 2022, Shockwave Medical last May and V-Wave in October.
In the surgical robotics space, the company is pushing its VELYS robotic-assisted solution for knee replacements and OTTAVA robotic surgical system, which the Food and Drug Administration approved for an investigational device exemption in November. Its vision business is working on launching a premium intraocular lens called TECNIS.
Duato said it is difficult to anticipate what is going to happen under the administration of President-elect Donald Trump, but the company is open to policies that promote innovation and access.
"We have worked with 24 different presidential administrations, and we are willing to work with every presidential administration," he added. "We worked with the past Trump administration before, and we are looking forward to work with this administration too."
—Lauren Dubinsky
2 p.m. - Nvidia to partner with Mayo Clinic
Nvidia is expanding its reach in healthcare.
The chipmaker said Monday it is creating a digital platform for pathology with Mayo Clinic. It is also developing artificial intelligence agents with healthcare data and analytics company IQIVIA that will launch later this year.
Nvidia has major ambitions in healthcare and has inked deals with several companies in the industry over the past year. Every patient room and hospital will eventually have AI-enabled devices that understand the environment in which they are operating, said Kimberly Powell, vice president of healthcare at Nvidia, during the company’s presentation.
The chipmaker has been developing an AI robotics platform, which can help train medical devices and surgical robots, Powell said. She said the company views healthcare as an area that is ripe for AI innovation and business opportunity.
“The area of digital health is just getting started. Our imagination of what we can do with agents to free administrative burden [and] create new patient experiences is just getting off the ground,” Powell said. “There’s going to be tens of billions of healthcare interactions every single year that we’re going to be working with agents.”
— Brock E.W. Turner
1:40 p.m. - Novant Health to embrace Medicare Advantage
The Medicare Advantage population is poised to grow along the coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina, and Novant Health will look to closely partner with Medicare Advantage insurers to meet that demand.
Novant, the 20-hospital system based in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, wants to bolster its relationships with Medicare Advantage insurers by growing its outpatient network, improving value-based care offerings and expanding its South Carolina footprint, Novant Chief Financial Officer Alice Pope said at a Monday morning presentation.
“The coasts of North Carolina and South Carolina are very attractive markets for retirees,” she said. “We know that will increase our Medicare and Medicare Advantage payer mix — we are embracing that, we are not scared of that.”
In November, Novant purchased BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina's UCI Medical Affiliates, which includes 52 urgent care centers and 20 clinics across South Carolina that are part of UCI Medical subsidiaries Doctors Care and Progressive Physical Therapy.
In addition, Novant last February acquired three Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare Corp. hospitals, 27 physician clinics, an outpatient center and a free-standing emergency department in South Carolina.
Those network expansions — combined with a new partnership with Durham, North Carolina-based Duke Health focused on outpatient care — will help Novant expand access and lower costs, said Carl Armato, president and CEO of Novant.
— Alex Kacik
1:15 p.m. - Providence turns to partnerships for more efficiency
Providence is three years into its Recover and Renew plan, which has delivered about $1 billion in operational improvements since its launch, Chief Financial Officer Greg Hoffman said Monday.
The plan includes reducing the system's use of contract workers and patients' length of stay, as well as organizational restructuring, growing value-based care platforms and increasing partnerships with other providers.
In 2025, Providence plans to focus on portfolio optimization and technology transformation, President and CEO Erik Wexler said.
Another big focus is forming at-scale partnerships, such as its joint venture with home care provider Compassus, announced in October, or the Truveta genome project, announced this month with several other large health systems.
In December, Providence also announced the creation of Longitude Health, a health system-led, for-profit entity that seeks to tackle hospital operations issues, in collaboration with Baylor Scott & White Health, Memorial Hermann Health System and Novant Health.
Partnerships will allow Providence to keep providing necessary services, despite a challenging operating environment with dwindling resources.
“We can’t be all things to all people anymore,” Wexler said. “That doesn’t mean we’re going to abandon communities. We don’t do that.”
Responsible use of artificial intelligence is another priority at Providence, Chief Strategy and Digital Officer Sara Vaezy said. There are about 150,000 monthly active patient users of AI-powered solutions at Providence, she said.
— Caroline Hudson
12 p.m. - AdventHealth aims to profit from primary care growth
AdventHealth is intensifying its focus on outpatient care, President and CEO Terry Shaw said at a Monday morning presentation.
A big part of the Altamonte Springs, Florida-based system’s outpatient growth strategy will hinge on its ability to make money on primary care, particularly in the rapidly growing Florida market, he said.
“We are doubling down, and then tripling down, on our outpatient systems of care,” said Shaw, who is set to retire in July.
AdventHealth set a goal to generate a 6% operating margin by 2030 in primary care, and will kickstart that by pumping an expected $500 million into primary care from 2025 to 2030. While turning a profit in traditional primary care is difficult, AdventHealth sees an opportunity to grow operating income through its urgent care, retail and risk-based primary care divisions, Shaw said.
“Everybody knows primary care is a loss leader, and we’re tired of it being a loss leader,” he said.
To boost its primary care services, AdventHealth will look to relatively smaller mergers and acquisitions around its major markets, rather than enter into new areas, Shaw said.
“The markets that we’re in, with the exception of the Chicagoland market, are growing rapidly,” he said. “We have all the work ahead of us that we can do to keep up with the population that is moving into those markets.”
— Alex Kacik
11 a.m. - Ascension fights to return to profitability
Ascension is still recovering from a cyberattack last May and working to build back the patient volumes and revenue it lost, CEO Joseph Impicciche said at a Monday morning presentation. The ransomware attack affected about 5.6 million patients and employees at Ascension.
Impicciche said Ascension’s digital platforms were unavailable within hours of discovering the unusual activity. It took Ascension 37 days to restore its main systems, and in the meantime, it relied on paper records and fax machines. Employees were running lab work across town, he said.
St. Louis-based Ascension spent about $140 million in response to the cyberattack, but the resulting operating losses approached $1 billion, Impicciche said.
The health system was already trying to recover from a $2.7 billion net loss in fiscal 2023. It focused on divestitures this past calendar year, negotiating facility sales in Alabama, Michigan and Illinois. Ascension is shifting capital from those markets to invest more in its remaining footprint, President Eduardo Conrado said at Monday’s presentation.
Executives say there is more work to do. Ascension reported a $1.1 billion net loss for fiscal 2024 ended June 30.
— Caroline Hudson
10 a.m. - JPM 2025 kicks off with fewer insurers set to present
Thousands of attendees are filing into the Westin St. Francis and nearby event venue Convene in San Francisco for the 43rd annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. The conference is typically a hallmark event for the industry, but insurers including Cigna and Centene Corp. and retail pharmacy chain Walgreens pulled out from presentations at the last minute.
Still, more than 500 public and private companies are attending, and J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is on tap for a midday keynote speech.
Pharmaceutical giants Bristol Myers Squibb, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer are helping kick things off at the Westin hotel today, while 10 nonprofit healthcare companies, including Sacramento, California-based Sutter Health and Charlotte, North Carolina-based Advocate Health, will take the stage at Convene. Healthcare technology companies Waystar, Tempus and Teladoc are also scheduled to present today.
Modern Healthcare reporters hit the ground running early this morning, on site and virtually. Follow ModernHealthcare.com today for breaking news on deals, strategic updates and other announcements during the first day of the conference.
— Caroline Hudson
What to expect from JPM 2025
More than 8,000 healthcare professionals will descend on San Francisco starting Monday for the 43rd annual J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference.
The four-day conference in the city’s Financial District always draws a big crowd and a lot of buzz, as well as provides an economic boost for the area. This year’s event will feature presentations from more than 500 private and public companies, focusing on hospital mergers and acquisitions, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, insurers’ financial performance and other topics.